Bible Black: The First Signs
by Henry
Summary: At a typical university, dark forces are congregating, as the young and the foolish seek power and prestige. This is the story of one boy, and the first steps he took to enter the battle between magic and science, and Hell and Earth. First in a series.
1. The Demon

**Author's Note**: Since this is a fanfic anyway, I'm screwing with continuity just a bit. BB's central storyline falls in the time period of 2004 instead of 2000, all for the express purpose of this one crazy anime crossover, all for the sake of one of my favorite characters. It'll be subtle. Really.

This is a slightly (read: tremendously) modified version of the story I crafted for the Bible Black RP. I have to confess I really fell for this character, and so...enjoy.

I don't own Bible Black or its characters. The only character I lay claim to is Asante Hirazuki.

-

**BIBLE BLACK:**

**Primoris Signiferum**

**(First Signs)**

An otherwise typical and droll morning had turned out very well for Asante, after being struck by the fuzzy green tennis ball.

Though in considerable pain and quite disoriented, he was quite pleased at the up skirt view he now had of Maki Kurimoto, his doubles partner for the morning's assignment. He could see her panties quite clearly, perfectly complimenting her short white skirt and shoes. Though mildly concerned, she made no effort to help him, waiting for him to react.

Asante lifted himself gingerly, and smiled weakly at Maki. "Thank you."

Maki ignored him, refocusing her attention on the match. She served to their opponents, and prepared to respond to their return, but Asante was staring at her lovely blue hair, and occasionally his eyes drifted lower.

He was -unsurprisingly- struck by the ball again. This time he was hit in a different side of the head, and promptly knocked out.

He was only unconscious for a few minutes, but out long enough to miss the conclusion of class. He lamented not seeing more of Maki -nor having an opportunity to talk to her- and changed into his regular school uniform, going to his next class: art.

Miss Takashiro was the collective crush of most of the outcasts and nerds, but Asante had no interest in her warm, personable nature, finding enjoyment only in viewing her body. He also took enjoyment in watching Kurumi Imari chastise her friend Minase for painting certain parts of her body.

He could not bear to look at Taki Minase. Asante's enmity and his jealousy were too much to bear, so he went back to his painting... depicting the various doomed souls writhing in the flames of Hell. It was a popular subject for him, rather than doodling or picturing Miss Takashiro naked, like the rest of the class. He drew Minase amongst the flames, and placed Shiraki right along with him, growling out his displeasure at Minase's apparent use of magic...or so Kaori Saeki had accused him.

Asante handed in his canvas and left without a word. Miss Takashiro took a moment to appraise it, and pointed out: "You need to show some range, Hirazuki-kun. I certainly encourage creativity, but would it hurt to do something different?"

Asante lowered his head. "No, sensei." He stalked out, as Takashiro released an audible sigh behind him.

His day improved drastically upon arriving in the library, selecting an appropriate text and ruminating before the shelves. Chancellor Toudou was only a few yards from him, quietly observing the young female students, eyeing them lustfully. Though at the ready to greet the Chancellor, Asante was facing his back, and made no effort to gain his attention.

At least until his head turned completely around his neck and looked straight at Asante.

"**Hello...descendant of the judge**," the Chancellor's backwards head greeted, smiling wickedly.

"Judge?" Asante repeated. "Who are you?"

"**I am that which cannot rest**," the Chancellor's head answered. "**That which is condemned to a world of lust and greed... what a coincidence to meet such a worthy successor**."

"Who are you?" Asante asked again.

"**A spirit longing for vengeance**," it answered. "**I cannot exalt my will without the aid of a host, but to do so I exact terrible, irreversible damage. The Chancellor here willingly gave himself to me, in exchange for the body of Hiroko Takashiro and a few of the other students… but soon he will die, and I'll need a new host**."

"Why should I be interested?" Asante demanded.

"**If I am correct, and you are the judge's descendant, you should be able to survive holding my soul within you, at least for a short time**…" the thing within Chancellor Toudou's body continued. "…**I will lend you my power, should you lend me your body. I will give you any woman you want. I will give you as much money as I want.**"

"I do not need your assistance," Asante sneered. "I'm not so desperate."

"**I do not appreciate being lied to**," the thing continued. "**I will slake your lust and satisfy your** **greed**… **and those are only a few of the things I can do to make your life better. What have you to lose**?"

"You're a devil," Asante spat.

"**You at least know I'll fulfill my end of the bargain, then**."

_Take it. Take his hand._

His thoughts turned to Maki. Sure, the deal would have some sort of downside, but if it was certain he could have all the women he sought...

Asante extended his hand. Chancellor Toudou's head smiled even wider and turned back around, as the ground grew a sickly black, moving easily along the floor and sliding upon Asante, swirling around him, consuming him… and laughing.

Asante felt no visible time lapse. All he knew was that he was standing before Maki Kurimoto, politely asking her to accompany him to his home, on the pretense of going over tennis techniques so he could prove a more capable partner for her.

His apartment had the feel of a darkened cell, lined on several walls with his books, left to him by his father. He invited Maki to sit on a threadbare sofa in his living room, but did not bother to make her feel more comfortable. He forced himself upon her in short order.

Maki had been through this once before from Miss Kitami and Taki Minase, so she was significantly less resistant than she had been before, but she still thrashed as he ripped away her tie and blouse, massaging her large breasts and kissing her neck feverishly, entranced and inebriated by her body.

He ripped away her skirt and pulled down her panties, not bothering to interfere with her stockings. He brought one hand to his waist, unbuckling his belt and waiting a few moments before forcefully penetrating her, bearing down and kissing her just as forcefully, as he began to thrust deeply into her, racking her body.

He had no control over any of his activities. All he knew was the pleasure, and the maddening joy of taking her by force. He growled out at her and pulled at her breasts, grasping them forcefully, listening to the intoxicating, whimsical sound of her screams of pain.

He did not want to waste his first time, so he made no effort to remove himself when he ejaculated, enjoying every moment of it. He rode out his high and basked in the afterglow of their sex, breathing heavily but very pleased with himself.

And then Maki lifted her head, kissing him passionately. "Please…more…please." Her eyes were wide, begging him. She was sweating and panting just like him, but her eyes were alight with desperation.

Though spent, Asante took mere seconds to recover. "Of course, of course… as often as you need…" And he took her again…and again…and again…

The following day, a bleary-eyed Asante stepped into art class, smiling cheerfully rather than sulking. He drew a new painting, and presented it to Miss Takashiro.

Takashiro's cheeks reddened ever so slightly. "Hirazuki-kun, this really isn't appropriate for class…"

"Just being creative, sensei," Asante answered cheerfully, looking upon the image of the red-haired instructor being violently taken from behind. " Please, place me in your detention…so that life might imitate art."

Elsewhere, Maki rushed to tell Jun and Kaori of her newfound desires, half pleased and half desperate to be freed from the sudden all consuming lust. At once her fellow magic club members resolved to help her, and pit their magic against the man who had seduced Maki.

Saeki would be happy to challenge him personally.

-

Asante felt his right hand twitching. There was no mistaking the feeling... sparks were lifting from his hand, dissipating into the air in short order. Some sort of power was radiating off of him.

"Is this your doing?" Asante asked quietly, leaning back against his desk and pretending to be interested in the lecture.

Half of his face contorted into a cruel, lewd grin. The voice spoke with only half his mouth, nothing more than an incoherent mumble to any eavesdropper. "**I am accommodating to you, Hirazuki Asante. As my host, some portion of my power is yours'**."

"Really," Asante muttered back, speaking as best he could with half of his mouth. "And what exactly is all this?"

"**I suppose you've only read it, but not seen before**..." the demon cleared Asante's throat. "**That, my boy, is your body's kinetic energy, as heat and electricity mingle together. It is the necessary power source to begin alchemy without complex symbols and components**."

Asante raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"**Well...there are a few marks**.." Asante winced as he felt a deep gash run through his palm, as a circle shaped like a serpent -the mark of the Ouroburos- cut into his hand and a purification symbol appeared within it... even as blood leaked from his cuts they closed up, becoming simple scars. The blood itself seemed to automatically convert into its base components, as oxygen drifted away and tiny, near-microscopic bits of iron rested in his hand.

"My God..."

"**I appreciate the compliment, but no, not at all**," the demon told him. "**As my partner, as the man who gives me life... this is but one of many gifts. As I did for you yesterday, so you too can adjust their pheromones as needed...and make any woman yours**'."

Now all of Asante's face bore a lewd grin.

Who to use this upon, he wondered.

The idol of the school, Rika Shiraki... someone he sought to take away from Taki Minase and have for himself.

Or that gorgeous, kindhearted redhead, Hiroko Takashiro.

The possibilities were endless. If he had indeed been given the power of alchemy, then any element in the world could conceivably be his to wield.

"**I will need more time in your body before all my power shines through, but this is a start**," the demon said. "**Until then**...**do enjoy yourself**."

Asante turned his hand towards his desk, even as the demon's facial features faded. He heard the far-off sounds of a lecture, but ignored them, as he concentrated on a single element within the desk.

_Carbon_.

He withdrew his hand, and energy cackled from the cuts on his palm. He broke the desk to pieces and replaced it with a small, uncut, unpolished diamond in his hand. The other students turned upon hearing his disruption, but none could understand what he'd done.

Asante smiled wickedly. The power was incredible...

"What happened?"

Asante glanced and spotted her; a girl with long green hair and a rabbit-esque headband, eyeing him suspiciously. She was Mika Itoh, a girl who'd never spoken to him before yet had recently gained a reputation for promiscuity and particularly sadistic (but thoroughly enjoyable) sexual antics.

Asante smiled at her. "A gift for a gifted girl, Itoh-san..." He placed the diamond in her hand, allowing his palm to briefly touch upon hers', and he sent the message. Itoh's body compounds began to shift accordingly.

His teacher was asking him over and over what he'd done, but Asante didn't hear. Being a model student was far less important than wooing this attractive young woman.

Itoh seemed surprised. Her eyes shifted all about. Asante could already tell what she was thinking, and he encouraged it. He wanted her to be consumed by maddening lust.

The instructor gave up and returned to the front of the classroom, muttering to himself that Hirazuki would just have to do his best without a desk. Asante didn't care, as he withdrew his hand from Itoh, waiting for the process to finish.

Her look turned from confused to glazed over in simple, all-consuming joy. "The roof, Hirazuki-kun..." she said it so quietly, but based on her inflection, Asante knew he'd succeeded.

"Of course, my dear," he said with a smile.

Elsewhere, Saeki left Jun to 'repair' Maki as best she could and remove whatever influence Asante had left upon her. The blonde sat down and began flipping her Tarot deck; even with all the power Kitami had given to her, Saeki still turned to the wiles of fate to test their whim.

She selected three cards from the deck's top and aligned them together, setting up a course of events for herself and her newfound target: Hirazuki Asante.

The first was the Fool... irresponsible and inexperienced, a less-than-prudent combination. Hirazuki was bold and optimistic, but foolhardy, unaware of danger lying plainly before him at the very start of his involvement in magic.

The second was the High Priestess... unsurprising. She, Kaori Saeki, was indeed contemplative and inward, away from the actions of others but prepared to act upon them at any moment.

Saeki moved to uncover the third, but felt the slightest twinge of hesitation. She had no idea why... she'd never felt fear from turning over cards before. But then, she'd usually told other people's fortunes and not tried to predict her own.

She uncovered it...the Tower. The sixteenth card... chaos and disillusionment. The breakdown of preconceived notions and the realization of powerlessness.

This would occur when she met him. Yet, who would feel this powerful change and falter of ego? Which one of them would be awed by the other?

Her curiosity was becoming insatiable.

On the rooftop, overlooking the campus grounds, Asante thrust in and out of Mika Itoh, forcing her up against the rough fence, holding up her slim waist with one hand, the other intertwining fingers with steel to hold himself up.

His face rested just above her shoulder, glancing down. Students were walking around, but he doubted anyone would notice them...less, of course, Itoh's yells grew any louder. Her arms were wrapped behind his neck, holding her to him and screaming out her maddening lust and desire for him.

Asante had no idea how long the effect would last. He very much doubted it'd be permanent, but he wouldn't exactly mind if he got to do this on a daily basis.

Itoh was exhausting herself, but Asante was nowhere near spent. He was quite impressed with his sex drive, as he'd climaxed twice already and still had plenty he intended to give her.

Vicious, animalistic, unprotected...and very frequent sex.

For that, bargaining with a devil seemed a small price to pay.

But of course, he hadn't yet realized how this would affect him.


	2. Magic and Alchemy

Asante returned from his liaison feeling quite refreshed, but he had barely traversed the nearly empty hallways, arriving late for class, before he came to a pause, his path impeded.

There was Maki, glancing at him uneasily, but she wasn't wearing her regular school outfit; she was instead adorned in a black robe, and it didn't seem as though she was wearing anything beneath it.

Asante smirked. "Afternoon, Maki-chan. I hope you don't mind my wandering eye... this was my first test of fidelity, so I was bound to fail. I found lechery provoked my desire better, and somehow didn't kill my performance."

Maki didn't answer him, as two others stepped on either side of her; one blonde the other auburn. The blonde raised an eyebrow: "Greek mythology and Shakespeare?" she asked. "I know you work in the library, Hirazuki-kun, but I didn't think you were smart enough to remember all that."

"Yeah, a lot of people make that mistake," Asante replied simply. "What do you want?"

Saeki placed one hand on Maki's shoulder. "You attacked my friend here. She told me you had some sort of magical power." Saeki opened her other hand, forming a sphere of energy in her palm. "I'd like you to give it to me, Hirazuki-kun."

Asante raised an eyebrow. "You want to play with me, Saeki-chan? Then how about a wager?" The demon's grin returned, as Asante's smile turned more maddening than before. "If you can defeat me, I'll give you my secret. If I defeat you, you give me your body."

Saeki's face contorted. She just launched the sphere straight at him.

Asante dropped down and slammed his right hand into the ground. The tiled floor broke apart and shot up, creating a short wall between Asante and Saeki's attack, and the sphere exploded against the barricade without harming its intended target.

Asante lowered the barrier and charged forth. Maki and Jun on Saeki's right prepared their own attacks, though Maki's technique was only half-hearted... and Asante slammed his hand against the wall, and with a thought he launched lockers at them.

He knew the noise would attract attention, so Asante darted forth more quickly, matching his strides with atom movement, racing along the tiled floor faster than the school's fastest track runner. He had to reach Saeki and be gone.

But Saeki was quick. She had already prepared a barrier of her own, crossing her right hand and creating a hexagram, extending and growing larger to encircle her.

So Asante hung a left and grabbed hold of the shorter, auburn-haired girl Jun, hoisting her over his shoulder and bounding away.

Saeki instantly glared after him, Maki still watching in a daze. She clenched her fist and glanced around the hall, expecting classrooms to open up at any moment with curious students and staff.

"Hirazuki-kun..." she cursed, clenching her fist.

Asante tossed Jun unceremoniously onto the floor of an empty classroom, welding the door shut with his hand before turning his attention to her.

Jun tried to utter a spell, but Asante clamped his right hand over her mouth, sending the message straight through her head.

"Become a slave to your desires," Asante instructed. "And then become a slave to mine."

The demon's smile faded again, leaving its host to his woman and her wiles.

"This can't happen now, Saeki," came the instruction from her mistress, waiting in the nurse's office as ever. "Takashiro-sensei's already on to us."

"So we take care of her now," Saeki recommended. "She's causing trouble for you and Minase-kun, right?"

Kitami nodded. "Just deal with this new kid on your own, Saeki. I have bigger concerns."

Saeki nodded, exiting in a huff, turning her attention to her Tarot deck and tossing it aside in discouragement.

_Women are like a drug_, Asante mused to himself as he continued to thrust in and out of Jun, even as she grew steadily less responsive. _The more you have of them, the more you want. Ever since my time with Maki, and learned of the taste of female flesh_... He moved his hand to Jun's neck before biting down upon her, eliciting a pained moan. ..._I can think of nothing else. All that matters is that they answer to my desire_.

Asante had been alone most of his life, and without a mother or father to guide him in social interaction, he'd had next to no understanding of romance or really any sort of relationship. His sole male role model only showed him how to waste money on booze, and since entering the institution and getting a place of his own, Asante had only his books and the padded cell of his home to learn from.

Not to mention the demon inhabiting his soul, reminding him to give in to those craven lusts.

Jun fell down once he'd ceased holding her up, breathing heavily, and little bits of his seed still dribbling out once he'd finished marking her body with his release.

**I know you are still unsatisfied**, the demon pointed out. **Who will it be next? The blonde girl? Hiroko**?

Asante snarled out, as once again he forced his exhausted body to move, his mind once again alert and overcome by maddening desire for any other attractive woman he could place his right hand upon.

"No, there's no need to rush," Asante stopped, "I'll wait for Hiroko... I want to cause more trouble first."

**Interesting... what do you have in mind?**

Asante thought. His studies and his job in the library were both suffering, and somewhere in the back of his mind he kept reminding himself that his constant search for women was wreaking havoc with his future intentions...

...but it was easy to forget that. It was much easier to think about his hatred and his desire.

His desire for women. His hatred for the men who'd claimed them.

One name circulated through his head.

"Taki Minase..." he said the name with some difficulty, as he growled. "You took our school's idol away. You've taken something that rightfully belongs to me!"

Without further thought, he abandoned his work (and Jun, lying by herself on the classroom floor) and headed towards the house of that hated man.

As he exited school, Reika Kitami watched him, taking a moment to think. _I don't think this boy will be too difficult to deal with. Even if Saeki-san can't beat him, he seems harmless enough... especially if I can obtain my target before he does.  
_  
"She's a disturbed bitch," Kitami noted, turning to Saeki and her tazer, and to the fallen Hiroko Takashiro on the floor. She glanced casually across the classroom, to the nigh catatonic Minase and his canvas. "That's a good drawing, Minase-kun."

Minase merely nodded before joining his allies and preparing for another night of lechery and cruel tortures...

-

Her name was Yukiko Minase, the elder sister to Taki Minase, a man Asante had come to detest... really without reason to, though the fact Minase had taken Rika Shiraki hadn't sat well with Asante.

He knew it was irrational...unnecessary...even simply imprudent to punish Minase for that, but his desires had ceased to be powerful and become all-consuming. Every moment was a moment he could've taken a beautiful woman to bed.

A beautiful woman not unlike this one... she had visited the school library as part of a delegation from her medical school, and Asante had been only too happy to direct such a lovely woman around. Now that he had an opportunity to take her for himself, and to take her without effort and without needing to control his impulse...

He saw her walking to her door, looking a little haphazard, but dressed in tight blue jean shorts and a black and white top, barely able to contain her massive bust. She seemed comfortable, as she brought with her what appeared to be curry ingredients into her home.

Asante gently tapped the ground and sent a tremor to her, so Yukiko would stumble and fall backwards, into his waiting arms.

"Oh!" she cried, nearly spilling her items, before turning to look at the man who caught her. "Oh, Hirazuki-kun? What are you doing here?" When Asante didn't answer, he instead lifted her back onto her two feet and she asked: "Did you come here for my brother?"

Asante's face contorted ever so slightly as he refrained from making a snide remark. "Actually," he breathed, "I came to see you, Yukiko-san."

Yukiko seemed surprised but didn't question further. "Okay, come in." She turned to the door and bent forth to open it, the top of her tight white panties exposed above the shorts.

Asante could take no more. He placed his right hand upon Yukiko's lower back, sending the message through her body as he began to fondle her, tearing at her clothes, even as the door creaked open.

"Hirazuki-kun!" she cried in surprise, struggling a bit at first... but only a bit, and only at first.

Asante bit down upon her neck, provoking another cry from the older woman. He grinned as he bent her further down, grasping her breasts in his left hand and roughly squeezing each one, as his right ripped aside her shorts and tugged down the second garment, and at last he beheld his prize.

Asante forced himself into her before he pushed her onto the ground of her house, and began thrusting recklessly. Her cries of protest died down, but he didn't particularly need them, so long as he could feel her body moving against his.

It wasn't just the pleasure he wanted from her... it was the feel of her body. The warmth of her flesh, the taste of her blood, and the pounding of her heart. Everything about her that made her female and desirable to him.

Yukiko eventually acclimated to him and after his first ejaculation she turned, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms over his neck. "Ah...Hirazuki-kun...please... please make love to me."

Asante continued, but his face must've appeared distant to her, as suddenly the feel of her body was less appealing. He could detect it in her pheromones, as his right hand studied every little composition of her body.

His alchemic activity wasn't what had caused this intense desire. Yukiko's mind was already consumed by a quiet, but intense desire... already subjugated to the will of magical energies, and not the ones Asante had forced upon her.

_Other magics? Was it Saeki_?

He already knew better. No...Minase. You did this to her. You did this to your sister.

Again his mind was overcome by irrational hatred. He thought perhaps that wasn't so bad, that Minase had done him a favor... but the fact Minase's magic had some superiority to his own was making him steadily angrier.

Fortunately, that anger served only to ignite his lust further as he thrust harder into Yukiko, snarling and grasping at her body more forcefully. Her cries started up again, but Asante ignored all that Yukiko did; he just kept going, dissatisfied with mere ejaculation and driven for more.

He needed to punish Minase. Since he wasn't around, he'd make good use of Yukiko... ripping her apart in his haste to acquire pleasure and calm his ravenous desire...

Asante extended his right hand and placed it upon Yukiko's sternum, and began to leave cuts in her skin... leaving a mark for her brother to find once Asante was through with her...

And Minase did return much later that night after he joined Kitami and Saeki in violating Takashiro, to find his door wide open. Minase entered and found Yukiko lying on the floor, naked and bleeding from a number of areas, her clothing in tatters on the floor.

Though he'd grown number to his emotions, Minase still knelt to her side. "Onee-san... what happened?"

Yukiko's chest rose and fell steadily, as she responded, eyes glazed over and unfocused. "Hir...Hirazuki-kun... why did you go? Didn't you...want to be with me? Didn't you want to love me?"

Minase's eyes washed over her body. His own lust was starting to manifest itself, despite another night of intense passion, until he spotted the cut in her chest, of a serpent devouring its own tail.

Minase's lust was suppressed so he could be angry at the man who'd done this. "Hirazuki... Asante."

Minase clenched his fist. The nearest wall broke apart, splinters flying past. Yukiko continued to pant as Minase's anger faded long enough so he could take time to use her as well...


	3. Confrontation

Asante stepped into the campus hallway, passing by the lockers and changing his shoes as he entered the facility. He could detect it quite clearly as he stepped through the hall... the floor had been altered considerably, as it was missing bits of carbon and magnesium, and most of the dander left by the students seemed to have been burnt away by something.

There Asante spotted him: Taki Minase, clutching a glowing, multicolored sphere in his hand and chanting.

Asante clenched his fist, and his body began to change drastically, as carbon atoms in his flesh and in the air around him began binding atop his skin, creating a thin, but diamond-hard layer around himself.

Minase flung the sphere. Asante extended his left hand to catch it, clenching his fingers upon it. The blast unleashed a tremendous amount of energy, but Asante sneered, indifferent to the attack...

...until his left index finger fell off, anyway. The bit of his body fell away from his hand and flopped uselessly on the ground, its carbon shell breaking away.

It took a few seconds for his brain to register the pain. Asante cried out, blood dribbling from between his remaining fingers.

**Fool**, the demon noted. **Alchemy is no match for the powers of Hell.  
**  
Asante refused to listen and slammed his right hand to the ground. Shards of carbon shot upwards, slicing through the air in pursuit of Minase. He merely crossed his hand through the air to form a pentagram, and the shards fell away, unable to pierce the barrier he'd constructed.

Minase seemed dull...unfocused. He began building another sphere in his hand, eyes glazed over and mouth hanging just slightly open.

**What will you do this time, I wonder**? the demon mocked.

Their attacks were beginning to draw attention. Noise was rocking all through the campus, and Asante could already hear the sounds of footsteps drawing nearer and nearer.

Minase threw forth the energy sphere. Asante slammed his hand to the ground again and three layers of diamond hard barrier appeared, rising up from the floor. Minase's attack shattered through all three and struck Asante in the chest, sending him flying backwards. When he struck the ground he sank an inch into it.

**I thought you were cunning, boy**, the demon noted. **I had higher hopes for you than this**.

Asante staggered up, thinking of the elements available to him.

**I cannot afford to lose my host. So I'll have to lend you more of my power...  
**  
With those words, Asante felt his heart race. His blood seemed to burn, and his head received a throbbing pain, as a small horn burst from his skull above his left eye.

His eyes burnt a deep, blood red hue. His mouth became a full, twisted grin.

"**Taki Minase**..." he said, "**Die for me**."

Not too far off, alarms sounded. The forces reacted, as agents mobilized in preparation for departure.

The activities at the campus were no longer just supernatural; they were becoming noticeably dangerous.

And Tokken would be there to put a stop to that.

-

Asante's severed index finger was replaced by thick black flesh, ending in a powerful nail, longer than his other fingers. The single horn sprouting above his eye had reached its full height, and he felt something new and intense running through his body, as beads of sweat leaking from his pores began to burn away, creating steam to waft away from his transfigured body.

Minase seemed unconcerned and just released another sphere at him. Asante raised his hand to catch the attack, and crushed the energy in his palm, discharging it back into the air, breaking it back down into an atomic state.

At last Minase seemed surprised, snapping out of his trance. Asante shot forth, bounding through the air as easily as he sped over the ground, unconcerned for gravity's pull as he blasted forth, rearing back his diamond hard fist.

Minase raised a pentagram to create a barrier, and Asante slammed his fist straight through it, leaving only a light tap on Minase's left cheek. Asante turned to attack again with his newfound claw, but Minase tucked and rolled away, clearly astonished.

"**How insolent**," Asante noted, "**I asked you to die for me, and you have chosen to ignore my request**."

Minase flung another energy sphere. Asante allowed the blast to strike his chest, and with a flick of his right hand, every broken bone and every cut in his flesh was mended and placed back into its correct alignment.

"**Show your form and beg for forgiveness**," Asante instructed, "**And then you can die**."

Minase's eyes widened as Asante reared back his fist, ready to deliver another blow...

"Stop."

Asante turned, spotting a familiar woman in a white lab coat. Reika Kitami, he recognized... the school nurse. He was fond of her, but then, so had most of the boys been...

...so why did he feel so angry?

"**You**," Asante heard his mouth utter, losing control of the faculty. "**You have a debt to pay**."

Kitami allowed herself the briefest giggle. "The dealmaker. Are you angry with me?"

"**I know what you're planning**," the demon told her. "**Your defiance will only insure a stiffer punishment**."

"Punishment?" Kitami repeated and then laughed again. "You cannot hope to harm me anymore."

Asante felt his body move without his instruction. He burst through the air again, straight towards Reika Kitami.

Her left hand struck like a locomotive. Instantaneously Asante's diamond-hard layer was shattered and he himself was thrust backwards, crashing outside the hallway and landing into a pile of trash cans. He cast a glance back up, in time to see Kitami grab Minase and head away.

Asante staggered up at the sound of footsteps and began to flee, only to fall flat on his face, as he felt numbness in his legs. Running out of options, he placed his hand onto the cool linoleum floor and sank beneath it, down beneath the campus floor...

Later, after questioning a few students and the unusually exhausted and unhealthy Vice Chancellor, a single Tokken agent found it.

A severed index finger. And, their only useful evidence as to the identity of the person who'd damaged the campus.


	4. Demon Within

Lying beneath the school, in a thin, dark crevice he'd forged between the ground and the basement floor, Asante mulled over the events a few hours beforehand, and thought over all that had occurred, and voiced his opinion on the matter in an admirably succinct manner.

"Goddamnit."

**The bitch has gotten stronger**, the demon murmured, using half of Asante's mouth to speak. **She must've known her time was running out and made herself more formidable.**..

Asante felt himself being overwhelmed by irrational anger. "How do I stop her, then? What do I have to do?"

**I can only give you so much of my power, or we'll have integrated completely together**, the demon explained. **Your constant use of it is doing tremendous damage to your body already.**

Asante examined his left hand, partially burned black and noticeably cut, but his gaze was intently focused on the new, completely black finger the demon had spawned for him, and recalled how Minase's attack had damaged him.

"What do you mean?" Asante asked. "How am I damaging myself?"

**Your reserve of energy is higher than average; it's the only reason using alchemy hasn't killed you after a few minutes. Despite this, you are still a human being, and you are still burning through more energy than your body can hold stably.  
**  
Asante ran one hand onto his forehead, brushing up on the tiny horn sprouting from his skull. "And this?"

**When I lent you my strength, some of my physical features showed through,** the demon answered**. If you do so again, more and more of your appearance will mimic my own, until your human form is burnt away completely.  
**  
Asante raised an eyebrow. "Good to know. I'll see what I can do in the meantime..."

**Besides hunt down that woman and successfully apprehend her? It could certainly curry favor for you...**

"I have to prioritize," Asante responded, as he activated his right hand, sliding back up into the hallway and following the long groups of students towards the shoe shelves and lockers. "First things first. It's been too long since my last taste of female flesh."

The first card she turned over was the High Priestess... herself, contemplative and introspective, unconcerned for the affairs of others, even the two friends who had been used and abused by this unusual man, Asante Hirazuki.

The second card was the Devil. Egoism and obsession. This was Asante Hirazuki now, no longer oblivious to danger but certain instead of his eventual success, now blinded by pride, yet also consumed by lust like never before, almost to the point it was becoming a necessity.

The third card Saeki turned without hesitation, unwilling to doubt herself anymore. She recoiled at the sight of the Lovers, the two bodies intertwined. If she had once again seen how their paths would cross, this time she beheld that they would engage in some sort of sexual act, motivated either by the overpowering madness of desire or...

...or...

...even love.

Saeki whirled around as her room window burst open, and the darkened figure of Asante Hirazuki stepped through, only his green eyes and half smile clearly distinct in her dim, candlelit room.

"Saeki-chan," he greeted.

"I know why you're here," Saeki told him, standing up and extending her palm.

"Do you really?" Asante asked her. "Do you truly know why I've come? Are you going to automatically assume you know my intent?"

Saeki did not answer, building energy into her palm, only for Asante to reach forth and grasp her by her throat, lifting her easily with only his right hand, sending the signal to her pheromones at a very slow, very controlled rate.

"I admit I'm becoming predictable," Asante told her, loosening his grip a bit so she could breathe. "But, beautiful a young woman as you are, I haven't come to take your body."

Saeki stopped struggling in his grasp, glaring down at him with her icy blue gaze.

"I just need to know how to defeat your mistress," Asante told her simply. "I need magical knowledge..." He cast a glance at the Tarot cards she'd been reading, and thought back to the identical deck he'd taken from Jun. "Like your ability to foretell... I want all your powers added to mine."

Saeki intended to resume struggling, until she felt a powerful urge flow through her system, as her dislike of Asante began to fade, replaced by a desire for his touch and embrace.

"Cooperate with me," Asante requested, turning his face slightly, to conceal the demon's smile as best he could to hold Saeki's gaze. "And I will return the favor with whatever you desire of me."

Asante released Saeki from his grasp, setting her back down on her room's floor. He held his gaze steadily upon her, observing her every reaction.

Saeki knew Asante had affected her somehow; she didn't usually give in to her craven desires, even after Kitami's influence, and this desire solely for Asante Hirazuki had to have been constructed. It certainly wasn't something she'd have thought of beforehand.

She did not admire him personally. This stimulation he'd brought to her pheromones did not inflame desire for Asante specifically, but rather the only male in view.

That made it all the more potent.

"Hirazuki-k-" Saeki stopped herself, even as her gaze softened, as she began to look upon him with greater fondness. She would not refer to him with any sort of honorific. She struggled to glare, but instead found her expression becoming blissful, much to her chagrin.

"You resist fervently," Asante noted, "but you're denying what you want."

"It's...not what I want," Saeki managed to tell him, already feeling herself lose control of her body faculties. She may have been able to refrain from jumping upon him, but if Asante were to touch her... and he was stepping closer to her. Saeki did her best to recoil, crossing her arms over her chest and her cloak, trying to conceal her body from him.

The demon grinned. **Break her spirit**, he told Asante privately. **No doubt she is still tainted by Kitami's influence. With my power, she can be yours**'.

Asante complied, and placed his right hand once again to Saeki's neck.

He was sure she would scream. He was absolutely certain she would try to obtain help from her family, if they were home to hear her.

But she did not cry out. She held her gaze to him, and somewhere beneath her melting gaze he could still detect the faintest traces of her fury and her intense personal wishes. He couldn't help but admire such strong resistance.

"You will be a jewel in my collection, Saeki-chan," Asante told her. "Your strength will become my asset." He leaned closer to her and whispered in her ear: "But first things first."

He pushed her back down upon her bed and followed her in the descent, opening her robe and gazing lewdly upon her body. Saeki turned her head in embarrassed defiance as Asante began groping at her chest, roughly squeezing her breasts, some of the demon's lusts intermingling with his own.

Saeki herself had become used to being fondled by men since Kitami had begun recruiting followers for her scheme; for some reason Kitami sought the sperm of virgin males, and Saeki, Maki, and Jun had all been involved in that scheme. She couldn't deny she'd enjoyed some aspects of it, up to and including the sex, but somewhere in the back of her mind, she couldn't help but feel resentful.

Saeki did not lust for pleasure the way Minase and Kitami did. She was not as susceptible as Maki or Jun, and was indeed the only one ever willing to criticize Kitami, even if she kept up the visage of being polite and indirect. Kitami cared for no other ambition but her own, and Saeki had to bow to it.

Saeki only wanted to learn about magic. Kitami had made her much more powerful, but Saeki knew it was a pretense; designed solely to whet her lips and offer her a taste. Kitami would only dole out as much power as was needed to keep Saeki loyal to her.

This man, Hirazuki Asante, was possessed by a demon...quite literally. He cared only for acquisition of pleasure, and the demon sought to kill Kitami and prevent her from finding a substitute to sacrifice in her place.

Neither wanted her for any purpose but her usefulness. Kitami wanted Saeki to perform menial tasks, and Asante wanted her because she happened to be an attractive female. The latter also had the added bonus of having defiled her only two friends, and showed no trace of loyalty or affection for either of them.

That was what made it so infuriating that she was losing control of herself, as Asante lifted her legs up onto his shoulders, still leering at her as he prepared to penetrate.

Saeki's eyes appeared pleased to the casual observer. They had to look for the simple defiance; the last vestige of ice in an otherwise melting blue pool.

Asante was impressed by her. Through the course of his session, even though she moaned and grasped him and held tightly to his embrace, her eyes revealed her continued struggle to resist. She would not give in as the other women had.

When he'd finished, Asante turned from Saeki's bed, clothing himself. "I'm impressed. You really are quite a talented girl, Saeki-chan."

Saeki didn't give him an answer, her chest steadily rising and falling.

"This is your only opportunity to accept my offer," Asante told her. "Give me your powers and let me kill your mistress."

Saeki couldn't deny she was tempted to agree. But her disdain for Asante made her formulate a different plot.

"There's someone else," Saeki managed to tell him, "with more magical power than I have."

Asante perked up. "Besides your mistress, you mean?"

Saeki managed a nod. "Takashiro-sensei... her power is almost as great as-" She didn't get a chance to finish, as Asante had already bound out her window once more, in pursuit of his prey.

Saeki smiled. Her plan was concocted, and he took the bait, hook line and sinker.

In some way, she regretted that...

Asante himself, meanwhile, was dashing through the streets, his body spurred on by the demon's tremendous stamina. The thought of possessing Hiroko's body, as well as adding her considerable magical prowess into himself was irresistible.

But, if Saeki had been correct and Hiroko was near Kitami's level of power, it could prove difficult to battle her.

Integrate with me again, the demon recommended, Hiroko cannot resist my strength. She will be easier prey than all the others.

Asante complied, and he spend even faster. His eyes burned red and his skin burnt even blacker, and the sweat on his body evaporated once more, leaving behind a layer of steam with each movement, as he moved so quickly his feet barely touched the ground.

He had less and less control over himself, but he didn't mind. The thought of Hiroko was all he needed.

Saeki, meanwhile, took only a few minutes to rest before contacting her mistress, and set her plan into motion.

A three way struggle. Kitami and whatever followers she brought along, Asante, and Takashiro, if she'd yet been able to overcome the drugs.

One side could prevail or they could all destroy each other. Saeki would be happy with and benefit from either outcome.

Somewhere amongst her cataclysm of new emotions and urges, she set aside this newfound desire instilled within her by Asante. She had more important plans to set into motion, in case this one didn't quite work the way she'd planned.

Specifically, she needed a certain tome out of the hands of Taki Minase.

Asante Hirazuki spotted the red-haired art teacher in the one place he hadn't honestly expected to find her; the home of Taki Minase, lying on his bed and wearing one of his shirts to conceal her otherwise nude form.

Yukiko was sleeping soundly in the next room over, and Asante had no reservations about waking her. The only thing better than an attractive woman were two attractive women, after all.

He reached out to examine her, stroking her cheek with his right hand, before using it to grasp her neck and hoist her up into the air. This contributed heavily to Hiroko waking up.

She glanced at him, more than a little surprised. Her purple eyes locked with his now-burning red ones, especially luminescent with the unusual gray shading now present over Asante's eyes. "Hirazuki-kun?" she asked.

His entire mouth was now covered by a smile. "**Not quite**," came the response. Hiroko tensed up immediately, recognizing the terrifying, but incredibly enticing sound immediately.

Hiroko could only barely manage to utter: "I know that voice..." before going limp. She was terrified, but also expectant, waiting for the demon to defile her.

Even without control over his form, Asante was thoroughly enjoying himself as his left hand reached to undo the shirt...

"It's rude to disrobe a lady without her permission, Hirazuki-kun," came a simple statement at his back. The demon dropped Hiroko and whirled around, spotting a familiar blonde woman in a white lab coat.

"**The bitch**," the demon noted, still grinning. "**This should be fun**."

Again the demon leapt through the air, discarding Hiroko and aiming instead for Kitami, slamming right hand first into her defensive barrier, taking the form of a purple pentagram.

"It's also rude to say such things to your teacher," Kitami observed. "Show some respect!" She thrust him back with her left hand again, but Asante/the demon leapt backwards, hit only by air pressure... which was still sufficient to send him spiraling backwards and against Minase's wall.

He recovered quickly, however, and slammed his right hand into the ground. Carbon spikes shot upwards, and Kitami avoided each without effort, tilting her body ever so slightly to dodge as necessary.

The black patches on Asante's skin bore open as long tendrils shot from his body, wrapping around Kitami to restrain her limbs. Surprised, the demon shot forth again, rearing back his hand to strike once more, aiming for her chest. The demon had no interest in Asante's lusts for this woman; he would kill her then and there.

Kitami narrowed her gaze and uttered an enchantment. The tendrils bounding her wrists snapped and she reached forth, grasping Asante by the throat with one hand, the other prying open his smiling mouth.

"Hirazuki-kun, I know you don't mean to defy me," Kitami told him. "You just have an infection." She grinned. "I'll get it out for you."

And then, all of a sudden, Asante was in control again... and in considerable pain. Something was being pulled out from his mouth, something black and acidic and very foul. Kitami continued to grin as all the dark liquid fell from his mouth and landed on her palm, collecting into a tightly concealed sphere. Kitami released her grip on him and Asante fell backwards, clenching his stomach and chest, feeling as though a number of his bones had been crushed and his stomach suddenly subjected to multiple ulcers.

"Thank you, Hirazuki-kun," Kitami told him. "Let me take your pain away." She grasped Asante, dragging him along the floor, burn marks, tendrils and all, even as they began to fade ever so slightly.

Asante locked gaze with Kitami, one eye his natural brilliant green and the other resolutely red, both conveying a mixture of pain and surprise.

"I don't want to kill you, after this generous gift you've given to me," Kitami told him. "But you're still irritating, and I can't afford to take too many chances. So I'll extend an offer: join me now or die. Those are your only choices."

"Go...to Hell," Asante spat out, some blood trickling from his jaw.

"Bozu,*" Kitami muttered. "Fine." She clenched her fist on Asante's neck, snapping his larynx before flinging him out Asante's window, where he landed in a heap in the bushes below. He twitched for a few seconds before falling still.

Kitami glanced briefly at the stunned Takashiro, casting a smile as she exited, still holding the majority of the demon's mass in her hand. Good call, Saeki-san. With this creature's power added to my own... She laughed heartily and exited.

Asante Hirazuki's body was recovered only minutes later when a pair of Tokken agents located his corpse and placed it in one of their vehicles. His unusual burns, tears, and the markings around his eyes and the heterochromia of his irises were documented, as was the position of his body; the only unusual aspect was the right hand upon his chest, and the lingering smell of burning sulfur.


	5. Darkness and Flame

Asante found himself lying face-down on some hard, rocky surface. He was surrounded on all sides by darkness. He staggered up to his feet, immediately feeling dizzy and unstable, as he felt considerable pain in his stomach and chest.

_Am I dead_? he wondered. He reached up to feel his face, and though he couldn't see it clearly, detected the burns and scars on his right hand and face, and upon examination, the slightly shortened horn above his left eye and the thick, black flesh that had replaced his left index finger.

He recalled what Kitami had done, and he could not feel the demon's presence in his body anymore. He still felt the powerful urge to locate female flesh, but had no idea where to take it from. Eager to gain some understanding of the darkness around him, Asante placed his right hand upon the ground, trying to discern some of the elements around him...

...again he felt considerable pain as energy cackled through his right arm. He found no trace of carbon in the stone beneath him... indeed he didn't detect any elements at all. It was composed of matter he couldn't identify.

When Asante tore his hand away he felt considerably drained; as though he'd spent several minutes running or rowing. As the demon had told him before, without the energy reserves the demon had granted to him, he could not safely or easily contain the power circulating through him during the transmutation process.

However, in spite of the pain, Asante activated his right hand again, pressing it upon his left arm, and selecting a single element: phosphorus. Again he was in pain, but it proved a worthwhile effort, as his blood stream glowed a dull white, revealing some of the area to him.

He stood on a simple stone pathway, with what appeared to be a few rocks scattered along the way. He couldn't see anymore besides the darkness around him... but ahead he spotted the tiniest flicker of orange light, at the end of the long pathway.

He had literally nowhere else to go, so Asante began walking.

In the Tokken Holding Facility, just below the Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku, a buxom bleached-blonde (with glasses, to boot) female scientist observed the apparently deceased Asante Hirazuki, lying on his back in the cell they'd set up for him.

She was the sole reason he was still imprisoned, rather than in a morgue. She had yet to give a reason, but as the ranking officer in the holding facility, she had jurisdiction over this man Tokken had recently tried to apprehend. She'd examined his body thoroughly when he'd arrived, and found more than a few things unusual about him.

The horn, for example. The burns and the cuts. The patches of black skin. And the fact that no matter how she tried, she couldn't remove his right hand from his chest. He was dead, sure, but despite a lack of pulse or brain wave, his body's internal processes had not stopped completely. His bones should've been cracked by the fall he'd sustained, yet all were in perfect condition, with more calcium buildup than she'd ever seen...

And back in that strange darkness, Asante finally figured out what the orange light was generated by: fire. Lots of fire. He stood at the edge of a massive pit, almost like a crater, but filled with stone buildings, surrounded on all sides by flame. He saw shadows moving amongst the flames: creatures as monstrous as the demon that inhabited him -some more so- and screaming, flailing humans, all nude or wearing tattered cloaks. Women were being raped, men flayed and skinned. Their screams were drowned out by the hideous laughter of their assailants, as what appeared to be harpies and dragons pursued the skies over the pit, and the demons beneath them tossed up the charred human flesh to their waiting mouths.

Asante wasn't exactly eager to enter the pit, but given the bloodthirsty antics of the flying creatures (which were now fighting over what appeared to be an arm) he dropped down, sliding along the stone wall and on top of a stone building, roughly rectangular and surrounded on two sides by flames. Asante scaled down towards another stone pathway, keeping an eye out for signs of demons... he had a general idea what to expect.

Asante landed on the stone and glanced around. A pair of shadows moving through the flames convinced him to dart into the building, and he waited, hearing uproar of laughter as two large creatures ambled past, the stone floor shaking with each of their steps.

He glanced around the dark, dank interior of the room he stood within, and spotted something unusual. Using his phosphorus-laden arm to illuminate the room, he saw it clearly: a mirror, encircled by rusted chains.

On the mirror's frame he read 'Vi veri veniversum vivus vici*'

"It can't be," Asante mused, and pressed his hand upon the chain. He gave it a tug, but the iron ovals refused to move, so he once again concentrated energy into his right palm, and a moment later, the confines snapped away.

The mirror cracked once the chains fell away. What at first seemed to be a splintered, distorted reflection of Asante fell away, revealing instead another pitch black entrance. Some illumination revealed a stairwell.

The sound of snapping metal and broken glass would no doubt have alerted someone to his activity, so Asante stepped through the looking glass and casually walked down the darkened steps.

When he reached the bottom he found himself in a dimly lit chamber, where he found more chains, this time wrapped around a distorted chunk of flesh held slightly above the stone floor. Asante stepped forth to examine the body, barely daring to believe it.

He recoiled as the body's lips opened, some blood dribbling from the cut mouth and yellowed teeth. "Hello, young man," it greeted, in a raspy, dull tone. "My name is John Faust."

-

It hadn't been easy adjusting to her new lifestyle, but Ritsuko had more or less acclimated to it. She'd done significantly less technological study and had to make better use of her genetics study and her medical knowledge. Given what Tokken agents frequently dealt with, a capable doctor was incredibly useful to them.

Now twenty and still studying in college, Ritsuko had been recruited into Tokken following her previous work in the now-defunct German institute known as GEHIRN ("brain"). When the organization was dissolved in 2000 because of some 'key failure' of an outside research project and following the suicide of her mother, having an opportunity to bury herself in workloads away from the public eye appealed to her.

It was a lonely profession, however. She'd resorted to smoking quite heavily and relied on her three cats at home for companionship, as the Tokken agents she interacted with had little time for her company. With the dissolution of GEHIRN, Ritsuko saw the departure of the only man she'd ever been in love with, and now her usual company was just the machines, the diagnostics, and blood samples scattered about.

Her eyes had been getting progressively worse, too. She needed a pair of orange-tinted glasses (provided to her by the organization's thorough health program) to read the documents she was going through. Primarily medical records, but also the structure of the genetic codes on some of Tokken's more... interesting recruits.

There was also the man lying prone in the holding cell. He'd been there two days now, yet, unlike most corpses, he'd yet to gain any unpleasant odor. His hand had yet to move, and Ritsuko went to go run another diagnostic on him. Her most recent blood sample had shown an unusual phosphorus buildup in his left arm, and an unusually high number of healthy red blood cells. By this point, his bones should've stopped producing them.

Placing her glasses in her white lab coat, Doctor Ritsuko Akagi exited her facility and walked down the dark corridors to the holding cells.

The distorted chunk of flesh became a bit clearer when Asante held up his lit arm, revealing straps and chains and stitches all over, holding together the disjointed pieces of a human body. Asante brought his right hand to his nose, overcome by the sudden strong smell of feces.

Faust, as he'd identified himself, continued to smile, and more blood flopped away from his body, dribbling out his mouth and an unfinished hem on his right cheek. "I understand your surprise, but in this realm, one cannot die. I had the misfortune to be dismembered upon my death; it's taken me more than five hundred years to piece myself back together, and the chains Mephistopheles left upon me didn't help any."

Mephistopheles. The demon Faust had famously bargained with... Asante was skeptical, to be sure, but had thoroughly enjoyed variations of the Faust legend, so he was eager to confer with this man. "So, your bargain didn't end the way you planned?"

Faust fell quiet for several moments. "Did you bargain with a devil too?"

"I did," Asante answered.

"What price did you demand?" Faust asked.

"Power," Asante responded. "And women. Ideally both in large quantities."

Faust lowered his head rather solemnly, and more blood lobbed down onto the ground. "You at least have the excuse of being young and foolish. You repeated my error, and have joined me in torment."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that power will consume you," Faust told him. "You forget the person you were before, and lose sight of the values and truths you once clung to. You become obsessed with the need for power, and seek more and more of it. It is a path of perpetual torment, much like Hell itself."

"I didn't come here for your judgments," Asante told Faust plainly, snarling a bit at him. "How do I leave?"

"Leave?" Faust repeated.

"Yes," Asante removed his right hand from his mouth and nose and thrust his right palm before Faust's only visible eye, covered in capillaries to give the iris a dark red tint. "I can perform alchemy. There should be enough elements in my body alone for me to escape here."

Faust laughed. "Young man, your body has nowhere near the energy supply to escape from here." Asante had expected to hear that and was preparing a ready retort when Faust added: "But mine does." He leaned forward as best he could, placing his forehead on Asante's palm. "Cut out a piece of my brain."

"Excuse me?"

"Do it, boy," Faust instructed. "Take some of my power and add it to your own. Revitalize yourself and escape from here."

"And why are you so keen to help me now?" Asante asked.

"You are planning on escaping from Hell, and on the rare occasion that happens, it thoroughly irritates the owner," Faust answered with a twisted, yellow-tinged smile. "Do it."

Asante activated the power in his right hand and cut into the already-poorly-strewn-together flesh, and reached into grasp some gray matter.

He heard a rapid sound, like a loud drum, repeatedly bashing, and then felt a strong pain in his chest.

He heard a raspy whisper of: "Farewell."

Ritsuko stepped towards the cell block, and turned the corner towards the 8x8 room assigned to their latest capture... until the door blasted off its hinges and slammed against the nearest wall. She leapt back in surprise as alarms started blaring, and a dark, menacing figure lumbered out.

Asante stood, dressed only in the pants they'd dragged him in with, his burns and scars less-apparent in the now-flashing-red corridor. He stepped towards her, his red eye burning brightly and his green eye dulled ever so slightly.

"Where am I?" Asante asked her politely, even as the good doctor recoiled.

A chirping sound rang out. Asante turned his head and spotted a tall man with a receding hairline and a pair of black shades, leveling a silenced pistol in his direction.

"This is agent Yuge," the man said into a small microphone by his chin. "Target is mobile. Escaped prisoner... visual confirmation of Hirazuki Asante." He paused. "Yes, alive."

Asante reluctantly drew his attention from an astonished Ritsuko (harder to do than he thought; he was captivated by the mole/beauty mark under her left eye) and focused his gaze on the gruff Tokken agent. "Will you tell me where I am?"

Yuge ignored him and grunted out an "Understood." into his microphone. He then refocused his gaze and fired off a round, little more than a chirp, and Asante, instinctively, raised carbon atoms around him, creating a diamond barrier without the need of contacting the physical surfaces around him.

He performed alchemy without thinking. He had done so twice now without the need for physical contact and without any sign of fatigue; it'd taken roughly as much energy as swinging a tennis racket.

Asante smirked and stepped towards this man Yuge... until he felt the sudden sharp jolt of a needle into his back. He turned to attack but stopped himself, his right hand less than a centimeter from the woman's neck.

His vision grew hazy as he held his gaze with hers'... no longer frightened but composed and examining, not unlike Saeki.

Asante gave a half-smirk and fell over, unconscious again.

Agent Yuge called in the information and leveled his pistol at Asante's head, but Ritsuko brushed him away. "This one's mine, Yuge," she told him.

"I was told to dispatch him," Yuge argued.

"I'm in charge of this facility, Lieutenant," Ritsuko told him flatly. "And he will not be harmed. Get me an armed guard and instruct one of the nurses to bring me an IV of curare."

Yuge glared at her but complied, lumbering away. Ritsuko refocused her attention on the young man lying on the ground before her, sleeping... no longer dead.

And despite the powers he'd just demonstrated, he'd restrained himself from harming her, so it seemed he wasn't all that bad...


	6. The Bargain

Ritsuko examined the man, heavily restrained and only partially-conscious as curare continued to dribble down into his blood stream, all the relevant information that could be found on him in a dossier sitting in the good doctor's lap.

Unfortunately, it revealed relatively little about this man, and what it did reveal didn't explain anything about his powers. He was orphaned at an early age, he had only one living relative -an uncle on his mother's side; technically his legal guardian- and he lived alone with a small, but not inconsiderable inheritance to support himself. He was an excellent student (only recently did it seem his grades had declined at all) and was a classified hourly employee at the campus he attended, working in the library and as a tutor. This particular campus had already undergone Tokken investigation, following a series of unusual activities in recent weeks, the location of a severed index finger (which led them to Hirazuki Asante in the first place), and the lingering knowledge of a mass murder twelve years prior.

Ritsuko refocused her gaze on this man strapped down behind the bullet proof glass. His eyes were dull and unfocused, but the gray markings around each and the mixture of red and green were undeniably distracting. Now that he was more or less awake, Ritsuko closed the dossier and stepped over to the containment room they'd set up for him, accompanied by a single, heavily armed Tokken enforcer.

Lieutenant Yuge had volunteered to guard the man during his regular shift, as he'd been reassigned from field work to manage Ritsuko's genetic research and the prisoners she'd examined to determine if any could be made into effective Tokken agents.

Yuge had loved field work. He detested his new position, and wasn't exactly fond of Ritsuko either, but he did his job in silence. The young woman stepped inside the containment room, and Yuge rotated the constraints, turning Asante to face her.

"Good afternoon, Hirazuki Asante-kun," Ritsuko greeted. "My name is Doctor Akagi Ritsuko; I have a few questions for you."

"Nice to meet you," Asante grumbled out. "You're only the second person who's called me by that name." He managed a smirk. "I like the sound of your voice."

Ritsuko managed a weak smile. "Yes, thank you. Asante-kun, do you know why you're being held here?"

"Because I came back from the dead?" Asante wondered.

"Interesting as that is, it isn't why we brought you here," Ritsuko answered flatly. "You've displayed unusual talents to Lieutenant Yuge and myself, and we'd like to know the extent of tose abilities."

"Certainly," Asante agreed. "Just loosen this thing on my right hand."

Ritsuko gave him a scornful look.

"I do not intend to harm you," Asante assured her. "I'm not even asking you to free me. But if you want a demonstration..." He let the thought hang.

Yuge gave Ritsuko a scornful look but she ignored him and reached down, loosening the leather clasp and allowing Asante to turn his hand around, revealing to her the deep cuts, forming the shape of the Ouruborus and a purification symbol. "Are you familiar with the concept of alchemy, Dr. Akagi?"

Ritsuko leaned slowly, apprehensively forward to look at Asante's palm. Asante closed his eyes as carbon atoms began to sift out of his hand, energy cackling like electricity over his palm to form a tiny, uncut diamond, sitting on the runes imbedded in his flesh.

Yuge looked prepared to shoot him. Ritsuko, meanwhile, refocused her attention on Asante's different colored eyes. "And you can do this at will?"

The diamond returned to its basic state, the carbon atoms siphoned back into Asante's hand. "If I have matter, I have elements to work with. I'm not as capable with more complex devices..." A tiny puff of flame erupted from his hand, dissipating as quickly as it appeared. "But something like Carbon or Hydrogen, and that's no problem at all."

Ritsuko nodded, still holding his gaze. "Is that where the burns and markings came from?"

"No, that was when I was bargaining with the devil who taught me how to use alchemy," Asante answered. "He gave me the power to alter physical matter in exchange for using my body as a host and slowly but surely gaining control of me until my physical form was completely contorted into his. He was forcibly ripped out of my body by the school nurse."

Ritsuko raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I know," Asante said with a grin. "And that all happened before I got sent to Hell and escaped after I located the remains of John Faust."

Ritsuko finally turned her gaze from him. "Your power is dangerous, Asante-kun. But don't get the wrong idea; we don't want to eliminate you."

"You want to use me for your own ends, right?" Asante asked.

"Exactly," Ritsuko nodded. "Lieutenant Yuge will bring you your meals until the higher-ups decide what to do with you."

"Oh, goody," Asante observed, glancing at Yuge's stoic-to-gonna'-break-you-in-half demeanor. Asante turned his gaze to follow Ritsuko's back, trying to examine her rear as best he could in the tight black skirt, but her white lab coat obscured getting a good look. "Oh, and might you answer just a few questions for me?"

Ritsuko turned ever so slightly. "Yes?"

"First, what day is this?" Asante asked.

"April 28th," Ritsuko answered.

"Okay. Second, isn't there something they say about women with beauty marks under their eye?" Asante asked, again forming a short grin.

Ritsuko huffed and stalked away, but again felt appreciative: he hadn't called it a 'mole' as everyone else seemed to prefer...

Back at the university, Kurumi Imari stepped into the art room and immediately drew back in astonishment, as Rika Shiraki and Hiroko Takashiro were both repeatedly violated by male students.

Kitami whispered something in Minase's ear and licked him affectionately on the cheek, as he lumbered forth to carry out her evil intentions.

"We'll consider your recommendation, Dr. Akagi," her immediate superior confirmed. "If what you say is accurate, he could make a useful agent."

"He mentioned a nurse at his university," Ritsuko continued. "The one who forcibly removed the alleged 'demon' from him. Any idea who this is?"

"Actually, we do," came the reply from another of Tokken's administrators. "He was referring to Kitami."

A number of hisses resounded from the collected administrators and the present government officials.

"Kitami?" Ritsuko repeated.

"The devil herself," grunted one of the administrators. "A survivor from the murder twelve years ago."

"Do not insult Dr. Akagi," her immediate superior requested. "She was in the employ of the devil, in case we've forgotten. Reika Kitami is little more than an irritant."

"Her threat is considerable," a government official noted, and then fell silent, meek amongst the higher ups at Tokken.

"Agreed. Did this boy Hirazuki attempt to battle her?"

"I believe so, sir," Ritsuko answered simply.

"Then we already have a use for him. Dr. Akagi, inform the Lieutenant that he will bring the boy back to his school to dispose of Reika Kitami as discretely as possible."

"Sir," Ritsuko said with a nod, turning to exit.

"Oh, one more thing, Dr. Akagi," came the voice of another administrator. "If the boy manages to survive this mission, he will more than likely require medical attention. You'll be assigned to join the two."

Ritsuko again turned back to face the administrators. "Sir, my research..."

"Your research, while invaluable, is a secondary priority," the administrator stated firmly. "You're our most competent physician as well as a geneticist. Your second, Dr. Nagamine, will take over the efforts for the Zarathustra project."

Ritsuko only gave a nod and reluctantly exited, to begin something she wasn't exactly fond of to begin with...

-

Ritsuko was -to put it mildly- annoyed. After a single day being briefed on Reika Kitami alongside the severely restrained Asante, she had joined a trio of Tokken's best field agents who had a simple task in store for them: the execution of a very irritating woman.

It wasn't exactly something Ritsuko condoned, as after reading the available information she'd become quite intrigued by Kitami. The woman had once been a member of the Priory of Sion, and up until recently had been traveling outside Japan. She had returned to work as a nurse, at the same school she'd graduated from. Ritsuko wanted to learn more about her, but her role on this mission was very simple: she, along with two of the agents, would remain in one of Tokken's vehicles and set up a temporary post both for any necessary medical treatment and to stay in regular communication with whichever field agent happened to be keeping an eye on their appointed executioner.

Asante himself wore a heavy glove on his right hand composed of a deliberately unspecified synthetic material, to keep him from ripping it off. Yuge had immediately volunteered to accompany Asante on his trip to execute Kitami but had since been denied by their off-site administrator, calling the shots from afar and placing the other two Tokken agents on a rotary shift for what would otherwise be considered a normal school day.

The ailing Vice Chancellor Toudou, though in poor health and poor mental state (he just kept muttering about 'Hiroko') had provided the necessary excuses for Asante's teachers. As he'd only been gone for two days and given his somewhat selective attendance in the past week, they didn't have much reason not to believe he'd been ill and was in need of brief reviews of past lessons.

The Vice Chancellor had a harder time explaining why a law enforcement agent needed to be present on campus that day, however. Assured that they were just investigating the unusual noises at the request of students and the parents thereof, and assured the faculty he'd only be present to observe the campus activity and not detain anyone.

Kitami didn't believe the blatant lie, but wasn't concerned at all about law enforcement. She had no idea why Tokken had come, but that didn't deter her from enjoying her day, using the body of a young man...

Saeki turned over the first card, and quite predictably saw the image of the High Priestess, more introverted than ever, shunted to the sidelines by a superior force and now lost in deep thought.

The second card surprised her as she saw card XX- Judgment. Some major event had occurred, leading to the death -or the rebirth- of someone, and a drastic change in an originally preconceived and predetermined fate.

And the third she turned and saw the Moon. Someone had developed another, entirely new viewpoint, romanticizing a coming conflict and rationalizing previous events towards some powerful -if unrealistic and infeasible- goal.

She heard heavy footsteps outside her classroom. Maki and Jun jumped on either side of her, their heartbeats so loud she could hear the thumps in their chests. Saeki herself immediately stepped up and opened the sliding door but only saw the end of a black cloak, turning a corner towards the nurse's office.

A young man, very frail and effeminate, passed by Asante, taking a moment to admire his new threads -the heavy black overcoat and the microphone earpiece, at least- as the formerly possessed boy stepped towards the sliding door and placed his still-encased right hand against the door.

"I'm in position," Asante said into his microphone. "Release the restraint."

A few seconds of dead silence later, the device on his right hand snapped away, and Asante merely had to flick his finger to access control over the atoms in the air, creating a powerful gust to blast Kitami's office door down.

Kitami herself wasn't facing him. "Oh, back for more already?" A single heavy footstep convinced her otherwise. "Or is that you, Minase-k-" She turned, and her blue eye focused on Asante's heterochromia. She seemed only slightly surprised, and certainly wasn't frightened. "Ah, Hirazuki-kun. I thought I'd killed you."

"I'm just a little bit stronger than that, sensei," Asante told her curtly, keeping his microphone on so the agents could hear him. "I've come to take back what you took away from me."

Kitami smiled. "You mean the dealmaker? I did you a favor, Hirazuki-kun. He'd already disfigured you. If I hadn't taken him out you'd probably have been dead."

"And then you proceeded to kill me anyway," Asante pointed out. "What are you planning, anyway? Why would you want to stop me?"

Kitami narrowed her eyes. The microphone attached to Asante's ear snapped and fell away, leaving a meaningless plastic handle on his left ear. Kitami stepped up and crossed her arms before stating: "I don't know why you're here, or if you're even here by choice, but I would like to know one thing: can you keep a secret?"

She stepped slowly towards him. Asante couldn't help but note her similarity to Ritsuko, and the way she moved -almost akin to a wiggle- when she walked. "Can you trust the word of someone who kills and intends to kill again, when she can promise you the things you really want?"

Asante remained silent.

"I know what you crave, Hirazuki-kun," Kitami told him. "Saeki-san made it clear to me why you opposed me at all. I may have been hasty in trying to dispatch you, now that I know what you desire." She smiled. "If all you want is women, all you have to do is become a slave to my desires, Hirazuki-kun."

He had said the same statement to Amatsuki Jun. Kitami had a manner of speaking that -without the aid of pheromone control- made her words seductive and incredibly, incredibly tempting.

She reached out to her hand to him. Though the rational side of his brain informed him it was a potential ruse and an obvious manipulation, she still looked warm and inviting.

Kitami then said: "Give me the names of the women you want. You don't have to answer me now, but as a gesture of good faith, I will show you the wonders of darkness." For emphasis, she added: "All I need is a name."

Asante was tempted to try this, and said: "Akagi Ritsuko."

Kitami seemed surprised. "Who is that?"

Asante grinned. "Guess you don't know her. Oh, well. I'll soon know if your offer is genuine." He extended his face, leaning closer to her. "Step out of this office and leave me here. I might be willing to help you... but you'll need to play along for a few minutes."

Kitami seemed apprehensive of his offer but nodded. Asante fell forward on the floor, lying motionless as Kitami exited. Less than a minute later, a Tokken agent stepped in and spent time resucitating him, dragging his partially-conscious self away.

"She got the better of me," Asante said, in an exaggerated half-moan. "She said if I attacked again she'd kill me."

"You will attack her again," the Tokken agent confirmed. "And one of you will ultimately end up dead."

Kitami smirked from the shadows, as Saeki and her two friends watched Asante leave.

_Why is he still alive_? Saeki wondered. _I thought for sure Kitami-oneesan had killed him_... She cast a glance in the general direction of the nurse's office. _I told her where he'd be. She told me she'd killed him_...

She exchanged glances with Maki and Jun, still feeling lingering effects of Asante's pheromone control.

_Or was my mistress planning something entirely different without me_?

-

Asante was thrown back into the restraints and the infusion of curare began again, keeping him thoroughly under control and barely able to make his trademark sarcastic comments as one of the Tokken administrators grilled him from behind the bulletproof glass.

"The Vice Chancellor was understandably displeased with your handling of the situation," the administrator told him flatly. "You are, admittedly, not a trained agent, but that doesn't change the fact you failed to meet our expectations. Not only did you fail to retrieve Kitami for us, but you did some damage to the school's property and could very easily have compromised the agents accompanying you."

Asante stared carelessly straight ahead, knowing none of the Tokken staff much liked looking at his red and green iris combination for long.

"I will make this very simple for you, Hirazuki," the administrator stated. "You will kill Kitami. Or we will take anything of value out of your body and immediately neutralize you." He added as an afterthought: "It is this simple: follow our commands and live, or disobey us and die."

The communication ceased and the lights in his holding facility were turned off. The administrator grunted at Ritsuko and left, the young doctor returning to her research, only to find Dr. Nagamine had apparently taken one of the documents home with her that day, so there wasn't much Ritsuko could do. She'd already finished the college's assigned homework by exerting the tiniest fraction of effort, so she had naught to do that evening.

And, even in darkness, those red and green eyes distracted her. Every time she fidgeted or turned in her chair she could see Asante, almost as though he were watching her from behind the glass.


	7. La Noche de Walpurgis

Reika Kitami, meanwhile, had gone to the apartment Saeki, Maki, and Jun had been renting. She had gone into the bedroom alone to study, leaving her gathered subjects to amuse themselves with the captured Kurumi Imari. Only Saeki seemed hesitant to participate, as she waited outside the bedroom, listening intently for any signs as to what exactly Kitami was up to.

She heard no noises, but saw a piece of paper in the shape of a human figure, emboldened with an 'R' in Kitami's blood after the older woman had exited.

Kitami paused and turned to face the younger blonde. "Do you suspect me, Saeki-san?"

Saeki at first intended to deny it, but nodded. "Yes, sensei. What have you been up to that you haven't told us about?"

"All kinds of things," Kitami answered simply. "I need amusement from time to time too, Saeki-san."

"Okay, then I'll be specific," Saeki agreed. "What did you do to bring Hirazuki-kun back?"

Kitami seemed surprised, but reacted naturally enough. "I didn't bring him back; he did that on his own. Hirazuki-kun is just another person I intend to make into my acolyte. Like Minase-kun and yourself."

"You don't need any more followers," Saeki told her. "The plan is all set up. Even if Takashiro-sensei intervenes, we're more than powerful enough to stop her."

"It's not the ritual I want his help with," Kitami responded. "I killed him, and he escaped from Hell and came back to life without the dealmaker's help." She glanced back at the bedroom, and the still-contained black sphere. "I want to know how he did it. In exchange for giving him the pleasure he so cravenly seeks, I'll be able to escape Hell's influence whenever I want." She turned her attention once more to Saeki. "Don't you still play with cards, Saeki-san? You should know that it's always best to have an extra card in your sleeve."

Saeki nodded grimly. "Are you leaving us tonight, sensei?"

"Yes," Kitami confirmed. "Enjoy yourselves. You're in charge for now, Saeki-san. Isn't that what you wanted?"

Saeki watched Kitami stroll away and drew back to think. Sensei is aware of my plans... she must realize I had an ulterior motive for sending Hirazuki-kun after her. She turned from the orgies on her left to their supply of drugs, and a single, undiluted mixture of the substance they'd been using, contained in a hypodermic needle.

_I'll just wait for the opportunity, sensei. I'll plunge this into Hirazuki-kun's heart and get back into your good graces... or I'll kill you before you can complete your ritual_.

Elsewhere, Kitami was in the thoughts of another young boy, who the day beforehand, had shared her company, lost his virginity, and fallen head over heels (if he hadn't before) for her. She had asked him to call her 'Reika' and had asked him to grant her fond memories of the school before her impending transfer, now only a day away.

"Yamanishi-kun? Why are you on campus so late?"

He turned to spot the curly blonde locks and green eyes of Rika Shiraki, the student council president and famed 'idol of the school'. He'd been fond of her, as all the other boys had, but now she was little more than the butt of everyone's jokes, after so many boys had sex with her that grisly afternoon. She was expected to tender a resignation any day now, and had taken to locking herself in the student council office, keeping unusually long hours.

"Just lost track of time, Shiraki-san," Yamanishi answered neutrally. His thoughts were all for Kitami, and he walked away from her without another word. That ended up working well for Shiraki, who exited the campus and went to the home of the man she loved.

Only to see him enjoying the body of his red-haired art teacher, oblivious to the outside world (especially since the two were pressed up against Minase's window curtains, where Shiraki herself had once been).

She clenched her fist in obvious anger.

In the dead of night, Asante and Ritsuko alike were summoned by the administrator, along with Lieutenant Yuge and two other field agents.

"Now's the time. Execute Reika Kitami within the next 24 hours."

-

"2:01AM April 31st- Tokken Field Agent Log; Report filed by 1st Lieutenant Yuge, Main Branch Shinjuku

Immediate target neutralized. Recruit Hirazuki Asante, following advice from Dr. Akagi and field agents Kazumo Kize and Morita Hajime, has been recommended for Tokken Field Agent status. Operation was completed in two standard hours. Target's corpse will be salvaged following autopsy and police examination. Additional witness testimony pending."

"Concise and to the point," one of the administrators observed. "Would you care to elaborate on exactly what happened, Lieutenant Yuge?"

Yuge adjusted his sunglasses, cleared his throat, and began.

Three hours earlier, Asante stepped out from the Tokken vehicle in the dead of night, on to the seemingly empty campus... but he knew better than to think it a waste of time. She was here, and the information being provided to him supported that.

"Several students have been reported missing, both from their classes and from their homes today," Sergeant Morita explained. "Reika Kitami has not been observed exiting the school. Kill her and as many witnesses to the crime as deemed necessary."

Ritsuko visibly flinched at the thought.

"Yeah, I'll try not to go crazy," Asante replied before taking off towards the school gate, pressing out his right palm to rearrange the atoms as necessary before him and step through the gate, only to be stopped before entering the facility proper; he smashed into some kind of barrier, toppling backwards.

"Asante-kun?" Ritsuko called into his headset.

"I'm fine, Doctor," Asante responded, stalking back up to his feet and refocusing his attention on the door. He pressed his right hand firmly against it and instructed the atoms to separate, only to feel himself repelled, and an almost electrical discharge ripped into his palm, leaving new cuts.

Asante cursed and prepared to use more drastic measures, until his eye swiveled over and spotted two people approaching. He slammed his hand to the ground and sank down into it, forming for himself a chamber beneath the ground to hide within and observe from.

Stepping over him were Taki Minase and Hiroko Takashiro, neither looking particularly pleased to be there. He'd hope being directly beneath her would give Asante a good view beneath Hiroko's dress, but only saw the underside of Minase's shoe, and couldn't risk moving himself or they might've been aware of it.

However, staying put proved a worthwhile time investment. Hiroko drew some marking in her lipstick on the door and it shattered at her provocation. Once she and Minase had entered, Asante stood up and out of the ground, following them quietly as they darted down the hallway. It was easy not to make any footsteps when he could just instruct the atoms in the ground to propel him forward.

He came to a sudden halt as he found Hiroko engaged in battle, magical energies waged against one another... and then saw Saeki, Maki, and Jun all fall back and slam down into the cold floor, and Hiroko and Minase continued forward. Asante again came to a halt as he knelt down to examine Saeki and her friends, all lying unconscious.

Though he might've considered helping them, Asante opted to forget he'd ever seen them and continued, all the way down to the school's dark corridor, as students formed a circle and chanted, and Minase and Hiroko each faced Kitami, lying atop the body of Kurumi Imari.

Asante himself remained in the shadows, watching the confrontation and waiting for an opportune moment. Hiroko was seized and promptly violated by two of the students, while Minase had begun a steady chant, and Kitami at last turned her attention from Imari and prepared a retort.

Asante couldn't deny he'd found himself at a crossroads. He hated Minase, had been given a simple ultimatum to kill Kitami or die trying, and the sight of Takashiro's partially nude form had him feeling impotent and horny simultaneously.

And then, at last, from the darkness he emerged, rearing back his right hand and aiming for Taki Minase's neck. He could get into Kitami's good graces after...whatever it was she was doing, promptly kill her when she let her guard down, and then have his way with his art teacher.

Until, that was, he saw the barely perceptible shaking of Kitami's head. Anyone else would've missed it, but he noticed the slight gravitation of atoms around her; she'd made it perfectly clear he wasn't to interfere. Asante locked gaze with her ever so briefly and slunk back, waiting the confrontation out with all the tact and subtlety of a petulant child.

And then the cavernous chamber filled with bright light. Students fled, and Asante was nearly trampled by a long line of cloaked throngs rushing up the stairs and the hell out. Once granted opportunity to compose himself, he peeked out and spotted Hiroko, also composed and redressed, Minase wrapping a cloak over an otherwise nude Kurumi Imari, and the body of Reika Kitami lying on the floor, blood dribbling from a cut in her wrist onto her still open, paralyzed eyes. Again he slunk away and allowed the other three to exit, passing straight through the wall to examine her fallen form.

Her red blood cells had ceased to produce. Slowly but surely her cells were dying off. She was dead, and she had told Asante not to help her before this process occurred.

Had it been arrogance? Had Kitami overlooked some key flaw in her plan and been thwarted where Asante could've saved her? It seemed irrelevant... until he spied something lying on the ground a few feet away from her; a tiny cutout of lined paper inscribed with the letter 'R' with a message attached:

'Hirazuki-kun, place this in the bag of the woman you seek.' -Kitami

He glanced at her fallen form once more, before a cackle came in over his headset. "Asante-kun? You haven't checked in. Why are so many students exiting the campus?"

Asante breathed out, placing the tiny item in his cloak. "They just witnessed a murder," was his curt reply.

"Murder?" Ritsuko repeated. "Does that mean-?"

"The target has been neutralized," Asante said simply. "Call the police to detain any witnesses. They'll want some answers too, so I recommend we let them see the body first."

"And what story are you planning on telling them?" Lieutenant Yuge chimed in.

Asante clenched his right hand and created a nice document, reminiscent of a suicide note, all using Kitami's little notice to him as the template to arrange carbon to appear like pencil lead. "I think they'll buy this."

"Very well... anyone else we have to clean up?" Yuge asked.

"All other participants in the night's events are still alive," Asante responded. "The only other significant witnesses present were..." he paused a bit, considering. "...Kurumi Imari and Taki Minase, both of whom have already fled."

"Understood. We'll send someone in to collect you. I'll stand in and give the report to the police myself."

"Oh, goody."

"He's a crude man," Ritsuko explained, "but he's dependable and obviously very powerful. I can't say I'd want to work with him in the future, but I have no problem with his official conscription."

"You agree with Lieutenant Yuge's decision?" the administrator asked.

"Conditionally," Ritsuko replied. "Is there anything else?"

"You'll have to be the one to inform him," the administrator told her. "See to it he completes his academic term and graduates. After that, he will be officially inducted into Tokken."

TOKKEN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT  
CONSCRIPTED FIELD OFFICER DOCUMENT: CLASSIFIED INFORMATION

HIRAZUKI ASANTE  
Rank: Corporal  
Department: Shinjuku Main Branch  
Missions Completed: 1 S-Rank Assignment  
Official Conscript Number: 002  
Assignment Status: Pending


	8. Epilogue

The term was drawing near its conclusion. In the final month of their class schedule, Asante had barely spoken to anyone, preferring to wrap himself in heavy cloaks to conceal his scars and his horn, but couldn't help but reveal his bloody red eye, which had freaked out more than a few people. The only interaction he had at all with others was when he found a young woman to contort to his desire... Itoh, Maki, and Jun... but it was all merely to pass the time and in the vain hope he might finally be able to sleep through the night.

He had avoided Saeki and Minase as best he could. He still saw Hiroko in art class, and both avoided the subject of his apparent demise. The students were all talking about Kitami's suicide and the possibility of some group of cultists having invaded their campus, but Asante remained decidedly uninvolved.

It was a strict command from Tokken to remain neutral and not reveal his involvement in the events of April 31st. He had been returned to his apartment and been granted a monetary stipend from Tokken for the services he'd rendered (he wouldn't receive his actual salary until after graduation), and was now under regular surveillance to make sure he wasn't up to anything they might have disapproved of. Now knowing he was being watched, Asante delighted in bringing young women to his home and enjoying several bouts of torrid passion, knowing full well his new employers would see and be repulsed (or at least, he hoped that was the case).

The last few weeks passed in a daze. Rika Shiraki, in her final tour of duty as class president, held virtually no authority over the other students. They all knew her as a degraded whore now, as innumerable students claimed to have slept with her, and Shiraki couldn't honestly deny the allegations. Her attempts to demonstrate her authority over the clubs and the student council had been met with horrendous laughter and/or rude, disparaging remarks, leading the blonde into a deep despair.

That was ideal for Asante. Now that Shiraki had been freed from Minase's spell, he would seize the opportunity to once again defile the school's recently renamed 'fallen idol' and add a notch to his bedpost.

However...

"Stop right there, Hirazuki-kun," came the simple instruction. He whirled around at once, face still hooded, but he spotted his red-haired art instructor, walking towards him. "What were you about to do?"

Asante thought perhaps he might tell a lie and just get on with the day, but a combination of boredom, lust, and the knowledge Tokken wanted to continue making use of him, he instead answered honestly: "I was going to have sex with Shiraki-san, sensei."

Hiroko seemed visibly surprised, but also alert and focused. "Why, Hirazuki-kun? You're not going out with her or anything."

"Why would I need to?" Asante asked. "It's only her flesh I want, and nothing more."

Hiroko recognized immediately what he meant. "What magic have you learned, Hirazuki-kun?"

"It's not magic in my possession, sensei," Asante answered gleefully. "It's only alchemy." He hadn't needed to touch her... he'd only needed to reach through the air and adjust atoms accordingly. Beneath Hiroko's well-dressed, composed exterior, Asante detected her pheromones already raging without his help. All he needed was to tilt it ever so slightly, to aim her passion at him.

Hiroko knew it was an attempt to gain control over her, so she at once put up a protective barrier, but Asante had already felt the movement of her genes. She didn't want to be protected from his attack; she wanted him to break her, have his way with her, and grant her the pleasure of a virile young man.

He complied.

And it was fortunate he hadn't pursued Shiraki further; she had someone else seeking her embrace, as she stepped into the now vacant nurse's office, where he was waiting.

"It's not me you want Yamanishi-kun," Shiraki pointed out.

"And it's not me you want, Shiraki-san," Yamanishi replied. "Not that that's going to stop us, is it?"

Shiraki closed the door and joined him on one of the room's beds, and each desiring a different partner, shared their pleasure.

After he had finished with Hiroko in her classroom in the short time before the art club would meet, Asante staggered away, feeling dull... almost hollow. He'd finally gained Hiroko's embrace, and though satisfied, he now felt the tiniest bit of regret. The moment he'd given himself to the devil for had come and gone, and his desires remained intact, waiting to resurface and claim the body of another young woman.

Disgusted by his uncontrollable lust and his own selfishness, Asante reached into his cloak and crinkled the little paper doll Kitami had made for him, before burning it to ashes in his palm.

At the end of the term, Asante graduated with honors and announced his intention to join the government as a law enforcement agent... carefully chosen words Tokken had told him to say. He wasn't at the top of his class... that honor had been reserved for Kaori Saeki, one of only five other students scoring higher than him. The two passed each other without a word, but both had their hands drawn to attack or defend at any moment. Kaori stood with her parents for pictures while Asante left, returning to his apartment to prepare for his new career.

Once she had a free moment, Saeki called Imari over. "Will you still pursue him, Mistress?"

"Absolutely," Imari answered. "He won't want to be Tokken's pet forever. He'll seek me out eventually, and we'll trade our information."

"Are you sure he won't betray you?" Saeki asked.

"No, I'm absolutely certain he will," Imari answered. "But like all three of my traitors, he'll ultimately help me a lot more than he'll hurt."

Ritsuko Akagi hadn't been thrilled about remaining assigned to Asante, especially since he had no need for a physician, and she had the dubious honor of watching him use the bodies of young women virtually every night... she would've preferred to be elsewhere, but she was in for the long haul working with him, Yuge, Morita, and Kazumo, while her ex-subordinate Dr. Nagamine had taken all the genetics over to continue work on the Zarathustra project.

That was one thing she could look forward to: once they'd successfully mass produced their conscripts, they'd have no more need for unpleasant recruits like Asante.

Or, her, for that matter.

Though looking forward to being phased out, Ritsuko fully expected she'd be killed by Tokken eventually. Tolerating the womanizing alchemist may ultimately prove necessary.

Only time would tell.


End file.
